First Published: August 2021

Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Suspense

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Plot Summary

A hired killer wants to retire after his last job but things go sideways.

My Thoughts

The way it started I already had an inkling that it was going to go one of two ways. I only hoped it was executed exceptionally well to hold my interest till the end. I think it partially did that.

In the beginning, the story moves with a perfect pace and I felt invested. Our main character Billy is introduced as someone who is highly intelligent but hides it really well (not a spoiler). He agrees to the job and while at it we get a glimpse of who Billy could have been instead of a hired killer. We also start to learn about Billy’s past as a parallel narration. Then suddenly the story takes a different turn that I did not expect. Did it change the pace…yes a little, did it change our main character – quite a bit.

There are much deeper social issues that get introduced in the book later on, which I was not expecting to be fully addressed in the story – which says a lot about the narration style. I am not so sure about the PTSD aspect of it, it’s mentioned multiple times but somehow it still feels a little washed over…for lack of better word. People react differently to trauma and I am no expert so I could be completely off base.

Do I recommend it?

The story tried to tie things up, it wasn’t perfect but it was satisfactory in a movie ending sort of way. The first half was promising, but I had to suspend belief to get on board with the second half of the story. 

Can’t say I loved it but it was not bad. It falls somewhere in the middle. This was my first Stephen King book and I was a little underwhelmed…maybe…probably…

I won’t recommend it if you are looking for a good thriller.